Had Rares ruled against Slipper and sent the matter to trial, the government would have been exposed to sordid accusations about the man it determined fit to serve as the Speaker of the House of Representatives.

In another example of politics failing to uphold the basic legal principle of innocent until proven guilty, Slipper’s career is finished.

He was stood aside in April and, upon the publication of racy text messages, was forced to resign in October, all while the case against him was pending.

The upshot is that other people are looking silly. The federal Attorney-General, Nicola Roxon, has argued publicly that Ashby’s case was an abuse of process but then the government withdrew the claim in September and settled with Ashby for $50,000.

Its explanation was that it wanted to end the lawyers’ picnic the saga had become. Its tactic was to have the court end the case altogether given the commonwealth, as Ashby’s employer, was the first respondent and Slipper the second. (The opposition said Roxon was trying to end the case before the text messages were released.)

Rares did not buy the commonwealth’s argument and Slipper was left on his own to continue the fight against Ashby and his battery of lawyers.

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Unable to afford his own legal fees, Slipper was at a serious risk of bankruptcy, something that would disqualify him from Parliament and further upset the government’s slender hold on power. There were also concerns for his personal wellbeing.

He found Ashby acted in combination with fellow staffer Karen Doane and former federal minister Mal Brough and now the Liberal National Party candidate for Slipper’s seat of Fisher to “advance the interests of the LNP and Mr Brough".

“I have reached the firm conclusion that Mr Ashby’s predominant purpose for bringing these proceedings was to pursue a political attack against Mr Slipper and not to vindicate any legal claim he may have," Rares said.

“Mr Ashby began planning the attack at least by the beginning of February 2012.

“To allow these proceedings to remain in the court would bring the administration of justice into disrepute among right-thinking people and would be manifestly unfair to Mr Slipper."

Brough initially was less than honest about his level of contact with Ashby as Ashby formulated his claims. Now he has fresh questions to answer.

The shadow attorney-general, George Brandis, who has also accused independent Craig Thomson of committing crimes even though the former Labor MP has yet to be charged, also over-egged the claims against Slipper.

The only member of the Coalition looking good is Barnaby Joyce. He publicly doubted Ashby from the outset and criticised Brough for becoming involved. For this, he was hauled over the coals by Opposition Leader Tony Abbott.

Slipper is not in the clear yet. The commonwealth DPP, which moves at glacial pace, is yet to rule on whether he rorted taxpayer-funded cab charges.